Would you take a car out in traffic if you have never driven one? If you are a student, you wouldn’t take a test until you’ve read the text. If you are putting together a complicated child’s toy in preparation for a birthday or Christmas, common sense tells you to follow the directions.
Why then would you step into a voting booth knowing little more about the choices you are going to make than a few memory fragments of the last three bumper stickers you saw? The late Jack Germond, one-time Washington Post columnist, wrote, ”Unsurprisingly, the poll-takers don’t talk a lot in public about the ignorance of the electorate on political and public policy matters.”
What Do You Know?
Can you name one of the two individuals elected to represent your state in the U.S. Senate? This is a very exclusive body of only 100 people who are frequently in the news. When I ask this of coffee companions, almost nobody can answer it. While I have not kept statistics, my guess is that fewer than one in 20 know the answer.
If there is a disconnect between politics and people, it is the people who pulled the plug with their trivial pursuit of life in the distraction age. And the politicians know what you know because they pay consultants to advise them on bumper sticker-size issues that will stick in the voters’ minds until election day.
Dumbing Down of America
In 1982, I attended a League of Women Voters candidate night featuring our sitting congressman and three wannabes challenging him in the Republican primary. The biggest political issue for that off-year election was inflation and interest rates lodged in the high teens. Fed Chairman Paul Volker was public enemy number one.
During the Q&A, I asked the candidates if they supported Jack Kemp’s proposal to limit the power of the Fed Chairman. Kemp was a congressman at that time who had made the proposal in committee, and their views on the question seemed quite germane since the office they were seeking might obligate them to vote on the issue.
I would have received clearer answers if I asked them to explain cold fusion as a potential future energy source. After three sets of blank stares and stammers, the sitting congressman said, “it depends upon whether or not you are a Volker-basher” (a common term in 1982). Glib but hardly informative.
At break, the incumbent came over to me and said, “We didn’t expect a question like that.” Ponder that for a moment. The economy was in recession due, in part, to the fact that many could not afford new homes and cars because of the exorbitant interest rates. I personally had a job that entailed bidding on equipment for construction projects and terms were “price in effect at time of shipment” due to inflation. And they didn’t expect a question like that?
Smarter is Better
A corollary to “we didn’t expect…” is could not a better-informed electorate expect candidates better prepared to not only answer our questions, but to do something about them once elected. There would be no need to agitate for term limits which requires politicians to vote themselves out of office.
While there is no standard for what constitutes an informed voter, below is a list of questions asked of immigrants going through the naturalization process. From a master list of 100 questions, the examiner selects up to 10 questions, six of which must be answered correctly. Below are 10 of those questions. If you would like to take the test, correct answers are at the bottom of the page.
1- We elect a president every ____ years. (2, 4, 6, 10)
2- The House of Representatives has _____ members. (453, 345, 534, 435)
3- The cabinet does not have a secretary of __________. (Interior, Communications, Energy, Agriculture)
4- Who runs the executive branch? (The President, The Speaker of the House, Chief Justice, Majority whip)
5- Which war was not fought by the United States in the 1900s? (Korean War, Vietnam, Afghanistan, World War I)
6- What is the name of the National Anthem? (American Anthem, God Bless America, Star Spangled Banner, War of Honor)
7- What piece of land did the United States buy from France in 1803? (Alaska, Puerto Rico, Louisiana Purchase, Hawaii)
8- How many U.S. Senators are there? (50, 100, 200, 435)
9- When is the last day you can pay your Federal Income Taxes? (March 21, April 15, April 21, May 1)
10- Who did the United States fight in World War II? (Germany and Italy, North Korea, Germany and Japan, Vietnam)
So What?
Government guarantees of personal freedom comes with an obligation on the part of the governed to know what the hell is going on. Lapsing into pursuit of life’s trivialities is like turning off the burglar alarm against those who steal a little bit of your precious freedom at a time because they have the audacity to think they know better how you should live than you do.
It’s happening as you read this.
(As mentioned, correct answers to the citizenship quiz: 1 – 4; 2 – 435; 3 – Communications; 4 – The President; 5 – Afghanistan; 6 – Star Spangled Banner; 7 – Louisiana Purchase; 8 – 100; 9 – April 15; 10 – Germany, Italy and Japan)
